


A Winter's Tale

by whosays_penultimate



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Fantasy elements, Fluff, M/M, Story within a Story, follow-up to Can't be Helped, no beta we die by Pooh, okay there's a little angst too but it's FLUFFY i swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 11:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21409765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whosays_penultimate/pseuds/whosays_penultimate
Summary: The weather is changing and I want to tell you a story.
Relationships: Javier Fernández/Yuzuru Hanyu
Comments: 13
Kudos: 62





	A Winter's Tale

**Author's Note:**

  * For [K1mHeechu1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/K1mHeechu1/gifts).

> This story is for K1mHeechu1! Happy birthday!! <3 I hope you like this little story, even if it’s not much! <3 
> 
> This story takes place a few years after the events in my first story for this fandom, _Can’t Be Helped_, and it touches upon some stuff that happened there. But it makes sense as a standalone too. Happy reading!

“Come now, it’s time for bed.”

“Noo, it’s still early, that’s not fair!”

“It’s not early, it’s dark outside!”

“That’s because the days are getting shorter. But it’s still early!”

“Aren’t you clever.”

“I am!”

“If you brush your teeth and get into bed, I’ll tell you a story.”

“A new story?”

“....A new story.”

“Not one I read in a book already!”

“I promise, you don’t know this one.”

“Okay.”

“Tuck those blankets well around you. There you go. Madre mia, can you hear the wind? It’s howling all of a sudden.”

“Maybe the wind wants to hear the story too! Tells you to hurry up!”

“...You’re a brat but I love you. Actually, my story is perfect for a night like this. It is fierce and cold outside, but you’re not frightened by it, are you?”

The child shook his head.

“Nope. I love it.”

“I know you do. The story starts, like all stories do, with once upon a time....”

... in a faraway land, where the sun rose and set according to different rules, there lived a king and a queen of great power and wisdom. They were fair rulers, guiding their people with a firm but gentle hand, to obey the laws of the land and to honour their ancestors. The gods had blessed the king and queen with two beautiful children, a son and a daughter, whom they raised the same as they ruled, with fairness and kindness. The princess was beautiful and obedient and the people looked to her like a goddess.

The prince however, was not concerned with worldly things like politics and ruling – no, not even marriage. When he was a child, he was funny and bratty and clever, and everyone laughed and said he’ll grow out of his strangeness in time. But when he grew into a beautiful young man, his strangeness changed in hue and lingered like a veil of mystery around him. Because of his looks and lineage, messages from suitors came from far and wide. Both women and men were yearning for the prince, but while the beautiful young man tolerated their advances, he never encouraged them. The king and queen shook their head in concern: they were growing older and the prince showed no signs of choosing anyone – however, not once did they impose their will over him. They knew it would be fruitless, their child was too stubborn. But the people of the land started murmuring, more and more openly. Some were worried, thinking the prince knew he was not of this world, and saw no reason to bind himself to it. Others merely believed he was putting on airs. His time would come, soon enough, they said.

The prince had a favourite pastime, that even his parents found difficult to understand. When the weather was bitterly cold and everyone was happy to be indoors, wrapped into blankets – like you are now - he would take joy in gliding on the smooth surface of the ice onto the frozen lake behind the castle. Those who took courage to watch him said they had never seen something more beautiful in their lives - but were also uneasy, because the prince looked faraway, in his own world, where nothing could touch him. He made signs no one could understand, and nodded, and argued animated as if with a living person. It was as if he conversed with the snowflakes playing through his hair, asking them to carry him away to a place where winter was eternal, and was disappointed when they never did. Why would they keep calling his name, in the small hours of the night, coaxing him outside to play, if they never took him with them?

As time passed, the prince became more and more recluse, keeping distance from those who knew him, wandering the palace corridors like some forgotten ghost. Her parents and sister tried to help, kindly inquiring what was on his mind, but whenever they asked, he would smile to himself, gazing in the distance, as if he had knowledge they would never possess. After a while, they stopped asking.

It was a cold winter night, not unlike this one, with howling winds wailing plaintively, when the prince decided to take matters into his own hands. If the snowflakes would not carry him away, then he would follow them himself. Taking no food or water with him, nothing but a bow and arrow and his beloved blades inscribed with his own name, he snuck into the stables and mounted his horse. Then he rode off into the night, where the tumbling flakes welcomed him like a long-lost brother.

The next morning, the king and queen searched for their son in vain. They suspected no foul play – the missing horse that only their son could touch was enough of a clue. And they knew in their heart that he had left of his own free will. What they had feared for so long had finally come to pass. The young prince was gone to the land of eternal winter, and he would never return home again. In their old age, the king and queen looked to their daughter, the princess, to bring them comfort and hope – she would do well by them and would rule as they had done. As for their son – the land would remember him – a marvel too strange to linger, to be gazed at for a season and then grieved for, like the cherry blossoms, like the snowflakes he loved.

But there was one who was not content with grieving. He was a prince himself, from a faraway land where snow and winter always seemed a distant memory. But he also felt the call of the frozen pond and had at times shared it with the runaway prince. They had written their names on the glassy surface with their blades, a memento of their friendship and bond: Yuzuru + Javier. Years ago, Javier had arrived as one of the suitors, attracted by the fame of Yuzuru’s beauty and by the impossible dream of winning his heart – and even though he could not gain Yuzuru’s hand in marriage, Javier gained something even more precious – Yuzuru’s friendship and the simple but exhilarating joy of gliding wild and free on the frozen pond alongside him. But now, Yuzuru had forsaken him – all for the sake of his solitary dream. They did not talk much, so Javier had no way of knowing what happened in Yuzuru’s mind to make him leave, but he could guess better than others. And even though it hurt to be left behind, Jaiver decided he would not give up on his friend that easily.

So it was that Javier alone set out on a quest to find Yuzuru. He followed the rumours of his presence, the stories of sudden snows in lands where there should be no winter. He walked long and hard paths, pursued by famine and exhaustion and dark dangers. But Javier always arrived too late: he never managed to catch up with Yuzuru.

One night, exhausted and close to giving up, Javier stopped by a frozen pond. Tears came to his tired eyes, as he remembered gliding onto the ice of a similar pond in Yuzuru’s company, in a land with different language and customs, but where he had never felt a stranger. It seemed that happiness had gone, never to return, and Javier felt desolate. He had his skating boots with him but no desire to put them on and engage in his once-beloved pastime. What was the point, without Yuzuru racing beside him, laughing joyfully, his cheeks red and his eyes sparkling? Instead, Javier busied himself with starting a small fire and huddling as near to it as he dared, rubbing his hands together and hoping for a bit of warmth. And then he suddenly heard it: the clatter of hooves on the frozen ground. Javier sprang up, his heart bursting in his chest. Yuzuru rode before his startled eyes. It was him, Javier clearly recognized him despite the falling snowflakes entangled in dark locks turning his dark hair almost silver. A slim figure dressed in black on a black horse, passing like a storm through the white kingdom. It was like a vision from a dream. Javier could only gape at him, unable to move, hardly daring to breathe. Only when Yuzuru threatened to pass entirely out of his sight, did Javier manage to find his voice, and call out desperately:

“Please – please – stop! I have been looking for you – Yuzuru-!”

Yuzuru halted abruptly and turned his horse around. Their eyes found each other, and Javier felt his courage return. He approached at a run, while Yuzuru stood stock still, his gaze unreadable.

“I have been searching far and wide for you”, Javier spoke up, with new strength and hope. “Please, come back, your parents – the people, we have all missed you. Come back with me – the frozen pond is lonely without you. _I am lonely without you.”_

Yuzuru hesitated, his features softening, even as the blizzard raged wilder. Javier’s words struck a chord deep within his heart – he too had missed the Spanish prince and the warmth of his presence, his carefree and loving companionship. But then, Yuzuru turned and looked around him at the whirling snow. He looked at the snow, then back at Javier, then he smiled wildly. No – Javier was offering love and safety, and while it tempted Yuzuru, the wind and the snow were giving him a freedom the likes of which no mortal man could ever know. Yuzuru shook his head sadly at Javier, and raised his hand in a final farewell.

Javier could only stand rooted to the spot and watch, as the snowfall thickened, engulfing the man he realized in that moment he loved above all worldly riches and dominions – that same solitary black figure who soon vanished from his sight in a whirlwind of white. Javier knelt there by the frozen pond, with only the mocking winds for company as he cried bitterly. He knew he would never see Yuzuru again after that night.

What he would never know was that Yuzuru too was weeping as he rode, and the tears that fell on the frozen ground turned into fragile flowers of ice, to be turned to slush come next morning.

After that night, the runaway prince rode on into legend, as nothing more has been seen or heard from him, and people could only guess at his fate. Some said he eventually stopped and joined the world of men once more. Others claimed he rode on until he reached the largest frozen expanse of water – the great sea – and did not stop even then: urging his horse on, he passed into a new realm where none dare follow. And still others believe that he still rides through desolate lands, with dancing snowflakes as his only escort. On cold winter nights, if you listen closely, you might catch the sound of hooves carried by the wind. Hush, do you hear it now? Maybe it’s just the wind. Or perhaps it’s him? Maybe he’ll ride by our house tonight. Or – _Or_ maybe he’ll even stop – maybe he’ll come in –“

“Javi, why are you scaring our son with such sad and terrible stories?”

Javier turned, grinning, to see Yuzuru standing in the doorway.

“Shhh. Haru was just falling asleep.”

“I wasn’t!” the child protested loudly. “And I love stories like this!”

Yuzuru rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, you do”, he admitted, approaching the bed to smooth the blankets down and place a soft kiss on the boy’s head. “But Javi, why did you have to give the characters in the story our own names?”

“You know why”, Javier answered softly, catching Yuzuru’s eye, and holding it meaningfully.

Yuzuru lowered his gaze.

“At least you managed to get Haru into bed before 10:00 pm, that’s an achievement.”

“Dad, can we get a horse?”

“....No. Now see what you’ve done, Javi?”

“...Maybe later, Haru, in a few years, when you’re older”, Javier laughed.

“Sure, we’ll just stable him in the kitchen”, Yuzuru deadpanned.

“Yeah, see? There’s a solution for everything.”

Their eyes met and they burst into laughter.

“Okay, baby, sleep now. Good night!”

“Night!” the boy waved. “Hey wait, dad – listen! The wind is quiet now – see, I told you, it just wanted to hear the story!” the child laughed, happy to have got it right.

Javier entered their bedroom to see Yuzuru standing by the window, looking outside into the darkness, seemingly lost in thought. He closed the door quietly and approached, embracing him from behind with a content sigh at their closeness.

“So how long have you been standing there listening to the story?” he asked, nuzzling Yuzuru’s hair.

“Mmmm, long enough. Seriously Javi, how did you even come up with such a story? And why make the ending so sad?”

Javier’s arms tightened around Yuzuru on reflex. His lips descended to Yuzuru’s neck, finding the particularly sensitive spot with practice ease, and kissed it languidly.

“Don’t try to distract me”, Yuzuru protested, even as he sighed and leaned back against Javier.

“You know why”, Javier mumbled, lips still against his neck. “This could’ve been our story...our ending.”

“....But it wasn’t”, Yuzuru murmured. “Because fate wouldn’t have it that way.”

In the ensuing silence, Javier turned Yuzuru around to face him.

“Do you still think so? That we ended up back together because it couldn’t be helped?”

“Yes”, Yuzuru answered simply.

“I think you’re giving yourself too little credit, and me as well. We’re the ones who made it work despite circumstances, and even despite our own very different natures.”

Yuzuru shook his head, sadly.

“Your story is all wrong, Javi. You’re the one who left _me_.”

“....maybe, but from where I stand, you’re the one who had been pushing me away.”

Yuzuru’s lips tightened.

“Hey”, Javier said. “I’m sorry. It’s okay. Artistic licence?” he tried to joke. “As for the ending, I just thought it would be cool to end the story like this, especially since Haru loves this kind of dark stuff. Funny how we named him ‘spring’ but he’s a winter child, isn’t he? Like you. But I want you to know, Yuzu – in this life, I would have never left you alone in the darkness. I would have found you somehow – if not when I did, then some other time, some other way. I’d never have given up on you, because even when I was with Marisa, I could never forget you, and the truth of what we’re trying to deny has a way of creeping up on us, in time.”

Yuzuru nodded slowly.

“It’s true. But this is too complicated a tale to tell a child.”

“Mmm”, Javier agreed.

“Do you really see me like this, though? A strange, never-content, solitary creature?”

“....No, Yuzu, no! It was just – okay, maybe I used to see you like this, a long time ago. But the sad thing about the Yuzuru in my tale is that he saw things too much in black and white. The Yuzu I hold in my arms right now knows that he can have it all – comfort and freedom, love and adventure.”

“But I want story Yuzuru to be happy too!”

“Maybe he is, in his own way? He has freedom and he can still choose what he wants to do. His story didn’t end, and it doesn’t have to.”

“And story Javier??”

“... He never married but he had lots of lovers who catered to his every desire until he grew old and decrepit.”

“.... Pffft. Well, I guess this doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Anyway, the most compelling stories are those that never end. But maybe Haru is dreaming a super awesome ending to my story right now. Who knows. Our son is so young but I sometimes feel like he’s smarter than the both of us.”

“He is, isn’t he?” Yuzuru agreed, face lighting up. “I can’t wait to take him skating for the first time. I just know he’ll be a natural.”

Javier laughed.

“He’s gonna be a handful. Come now, let me put you to bed as well, baby.”

Outside, in the quiet darkness, snowflakes danced around on the wings of a playful wind.


End file.
